Marine Sciences

Description

The doctoral degree in Marine Sciences is an interuniversity programme in which the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) participate, as well as three centres belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): the Marine Sciences Institute (ICM), the Advanced Studies Centre of Blanes (CEAB) and the Research and Development Centre (CID). The programme received a positive evaluation from the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU) in July 2013 and the Universities Council in September 2013.

Like so many other scientific and technical fields, the marine sciences are undergoing a process of rapid change in their very nature. (Some describe the field as a meeting place for all scientific disciplines.) This change is also driven by the high rate of development and innovation in the activities that the marine sciences encompass. It is therefore necessary to extend, update and deepen the training of master’s students, both in the marine sciences and in the disciplines that converge in this field (civil engineering, naval engineering, geology, biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics). Undertaking advanced studies beyond the master’s level is the best way for future professionals to get the training they need in this field, in which new areas of activity are constantly emerging, such as exploitation of marine renewable energies (a relatively new field in Spain) and exploration for mineral and energy resources in deep and ultra-deep waters.

The doctoral degree in Marine Sciences of the UB and the UPC (the programme coordinator) combines advanced, flexible training elements with a critical mass of renowned researchers and technical experts, top-notch facilities (both in the laboratory and at sea), outstanding scientific activity, and highly significant socioeconomic activity linked to the sea. Thanks to these assets, the programme provides the best framework to guide and direct students who wish to complete their academic training by preparing a doctoral thesis in this area.

The UPC and the UB have collaborated effectively since 1985 to deliver the programme, building a strong working relationship and rapport in their educational and scientific approaches. This productive partnership, the number of theses presented (and the grades awarded), and international publications linked to this work all attest to the ability of these two universities to continue producing doctoral graduates who are well prepared to pursue a career in this field. Within Spain, the UB is a leader in the experimental sciences, while the UPC has a reputation for excellence in the field of engineering. Both universities, and in particular the centres and research groups that support the programme, hold consistently strong positions in international rankings. The UB is the top-ranked Spanish university in physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, biological sciences, earth sciences and environmental sciences. The UPC is ranked number one in engineering and second in mathematics. Both are well-positioned on international rankings, including the Shanghai Rankings. The UB, in fact, is the top-ranked university at the national level. The UPC, for its part, has earned a place on the QS Top 50 Under 50, which ranks the world’s top young universities. The joint research projects of the two institutions in the marine sciences (both national and European) are at the frontier of knowledge. This is clearly reflected in the early recognition of the Barcelona Knowledge Campus (BKC), where the disciplines that converge in the field of marine sciences hold pride of place, as a joint International Campus of Excellence. These markers of excellence demonstrate the high degree of competitiveness of the two universities that support the doctoral programme and their researchers (including in EU programmes, where a relatively small proportion of proposals are awarded funding). The UB, the UPC, and the departments and groups of both universities involved in the programme offer students the multidisciplinary approach needed to ensure effective training in the various branches of marine sciences (biology, geology, physics, chemistry, engineering and management). Opportunities to get involved in active research projects and contracts further enrich the learning experience. In addition, the programme’s extensive network of external collaborations—with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), and other public and private research bodies—enables doctoral students to find the arrangements and scientific framework that best match their area of research. Within Spain, Catalonia (and in particular Barcelona) has one of the highest and richest concentrations of universities and research centres in the marine sciences, and their complementary relationship is reflected in an abundance of infrastructure and human capital. The training offered, as well as the approach and capabilities, are comparable and often superior to those of the doctoral programmes in marine sciences of European and American universities. Apart from being home to the UPC and the UB, CSIC centres and the Port of Barcelona, Barcelona offers other significant advantages. In Europe, this privileged situation is only matched by the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the Kiel-Bremen area (GEOMAR and MARUM) and Brest (IFREMER and the University of West Brittany).

The UB and the UPC maintain close collaborations with all of these institutions and many others in Europe within the framework of research projects and educational programmes (e.g. the Erasmus Mundus master’s degree in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management, CoMEM, organised with the universities of Delft, Trondheim and Southampton, and the EURODOM Research Training Network on European Deep Ocean Margins—both projects now completed). The UB has strong collaborations in marine research with the NOC, IFREMER, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ), the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), GEOMAR, the Italian Institute for Marine Research (ISMAR), the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Tromsø, the National University of Ireland, the Hydrographic Institute of Portugal, the University of Ghent, the Max Plank Institute and the University of Bremen, among other institutions. The UPC, for its part, collaborates with the NOC and HR Wallingford in the UK, Deltares in the Netherlands, DHI in Denmark, IFREMER, the Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOM) and the Météo doctoral programme in France. This wide network of collaborations with European institutions in research projects, training and other activities allows us to continuously check how the level and competitiveness of the doctoral programme measures up against those offered by similar institutions and partnerships in the EU. These connections also enable us to establish specific cooperative relationships involving the exchange of professors (usually within the framework of mobility programmes), research and doctoral students, as well as facilitating the completion of joint co-supervised theses, a growing trend. More broadly, these collaborations offer clear benefits and an international frame of reference for all doctoral students.

Within this framework, the main aim of the interuniversity doctoral programme in Marine Sciences is to ensure that students from related master’s degrees (particularly the master’s degree in Marine Science: Oceanography and Marine Management, also offered jointly by the UB and the UPC) receive advanced training that meets the highest international standards. The two joint UB-UPC programmes in this field are the most recent result of a long-standing collaboration that dates back to the 1980s, when the two universities started offering joint doctoral courses, and has culminated in the participation of academic staff from both institutions in the interuniversity master’s programme, which has now been offered for six years. In the marine sciences, the master’s and doctoral programme that emerged from this partnership have been granted a series of quality awards by the Spanish Ministry of Education since they were launched. The doctoral programme was granted the Pathway to Excellence award from 2010 (MEE2011-0703: 2011, 2012, 2013) and, before that, the Quality award from 2003 (MCD2003-00141: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).

The programme allows doctoral students to delve into the latest advances in marine sciences with the support of UPC and UB professors and researchers as well as visiting scholars (on mobility stays or in connection with research projects carried out at the two institutions). In this environment, students are able to constantly update and assess their training and ensure that their thesis is on the right track. This is particularly important given that a doctoral thesis is a student’s first, and therefore most important, research project—a key project that they must be able to manage and complete with the support of their assigned supervisor and tutor. The learning experience is also enriched by interdisciplinary input from the departments and groups of the two institutions behind the doctoral programme. The programme offers students opportunities to participate in a wide range of activities, including oceanographic campaigns with large ships (observations, measurements, in situ sampling, acquisition of geophysical data); field measurement seminars in the coastal zone and on the continental shelf; learning how to process and visualise large volumes of data (bathymetric, geophysical, oceanographic, etc.); development of numerical models (surges, sediment transport); and integrated management analyses (coastal areas, seabed). As a result, uses of the seabed, understanding and sustainable exploitation of marine resources, quality assessment of waters and the ecosystem, and management of coastal and marine areas are core elements of the doctoral programme. These activities naturally entail the use of a diverse range of information sources, types of data (from satellite images to microorganisms and sedimentary particles) and spatial and temporal scales, though each doctoral student will focus on those most relevant to the development of their thesis.

All of the work done within the framework of the programme converges in a characterisation of the dynamics and health of the Catalan coast (both land and marine components), which has become a pressing need for Catalonia and by extension Spain, both of which are heavily dependent on the coastal strip, which generates a significant percentage of GDP and is home to a large population. Similarly, given the impact of fishing activities and future threats to the sector, understanding the variables (natural and anthropogenic) that affect fishery yield is vital from both a social and a resource management perspective. Training in population dynamics and the genetic characterisation of organisms, including both commercially exploited and unexploited species, is therefore essential. Our country also needs experts trained in marine hazards, such as those generated by recent tsunamis and catastrophic storms. Finally, there is also a need for specialists in exploration of the seabed and sub-seabed, an increasingly important source of hydrocarbons and a reservoir of resources, such as gas hydrates, that could prove to be extraordinarily important. The Catalan coast is also being affected by the growing presence of rigid infrastructures, which modify its characteristics and produce a wide range of impacts.

All of these issues underscore the need for an approach to training and research that produces doctoral graduates who are specialists in marine sciences and presents coastal populations and society in general with the results of their research in theses and scientific papers, which have a key role to play in improving efficiency (and therefore sustainability) in the development of our seas and coasts. For example, ‘enough’ beaches need to be maintained without excessive economic costs or environmental impact, and added value must be generated by using the tools of operational oceanography to manage risks in the coastal zone, extract mineral and energy resources from the seabed and sub-seabed, prevent risks and manage fisheries.

The social and industrial fabric of Catalonia and Spain needs to absorb this advanced knowledge to reach levels of efficiency that make it possible to tackle challenges related to the current economic upheaval in a marine ecosystem subject to a high level of stress. Only if this is achieved will it be possible to mitigate natural and anthropogenic impacts on the coastal zone. Persistent organic pollutants and microplastics that have reached the most remote places in the global ocean and entered its food chain are just one example of the many challenges that need to be tackled.

The interuniversity doctoral programme in Marine Sciences covers six of the priority research areas established in Catalonia:

• Environment. The coastal zone and near-shore marine waters are one of the most biologically productive areas with one of the highest concentrations of population and socioeconomic value, particularly in the Mediterranean Basin.
• Sensitivity to climate and climate variation. The sea-land boundary plays an important balancing role in relation to marine and terrestrial climate drivers.
• Space. Now and in the coming years, most observations of environmental variables on the coastal strip and the sea will be made using remote images and data collected by instruments on planes, balloon probes and satellites. This focus is also in line with EU research priorities.
  

The marine sciences also include the following areas:

• Transport. Maritime transport is one of the most energy-efficient alternatives.
• Materials. Construction of new offshore structures requires a different type of analysis than that used for on-land construction.
• Non-renewable and renewable energies. The latter have gained a great deal of momentum in recent years in the marine context.
  

The interuniversity doctoral programme in Marine Sciences also maintains a close relationship, based on mutual interest, with the drivers of technological development in the broadest sense, particularly in relation to the design, construction, verification and use of new information and communication technologies (ICT); remotely-piloted and autonomous vehicles that can reach the depths of the ocean; and systems for taking measurements and carrying out in situ operations on the seabed and in the sub-seabed (including at great depths). The advanced application of ICT in the marine environment responds to the need to transmit information at a distance, both for observation and to quantify risks and various processes that occur in that environment. Examples include LIDAR systems installed on oceanographic buoys and early detection and alert systems for storms and other geophysical phenomena.

The areas of activity mentioned above are also a priority in the strategic development plans of the UB and the UPC. This emphasis is reflected in existing research facilities (e.g. the UPC’s wave flume and the UB’s pool of instruments for monitoring the deep marine environment) and others under development (e.g. the UB’s laboratory for non-destructive analysis of geological samples, designed specifically to facilitate the study of sediment cores extracted from the seabed).

There is abundant evidence of the capabilities of the UB and the UPC: the number of research projects awarded competitive funding in recent calls; numerous contracts with companies, consortia and public-sector bodies; the Government of Catalonia’s official recognition of consolidated research groups (including the UPC and UB groups that coordinate the programme, in effect continuously since 1994); and the exceptional facilities that doctoral students have access to for carrying out thesis-related research work, including EU facilities and facilities that have been recognised as "outstanding" by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. These top-notch facilities include the UPC’s wave flume and the large oceanographic research vessels managed by various agencies and used mainly by the UB and the UPC. The creation of joint centres involving the CSIC, the UPC and the UB, and the two universities and the Government of Catalonia (all linked to this doctoral programme), is further evidence of the capabilities of the partner universities and their researchers, and of the synergies needed to provide doctoral students with specialised training in this field. The research, development and innovation strategy of the two institutions, and those of the public-sector bodies and companies that collaborate with them, benefits from the doctoral programme in Marine Sciences (which produces new specialists and transferable research results). Conversely, the doctoral programme benefits from a scientific, social and economic framework that facilitates the generation of new ideas and yields fruitful interactions for research and, sometimes, for its funding.

The results obtained over the more than 25 years that the joint doctoral programme in Marine Sciences has been offered—in terms of theses, papers and research projects, added value in training, and benefits to society—provide ample justification for the programme, which has also produced impressive results in terms of the ratio of theses to enrolled students, grants obtained, and the number of publications in journals with a very high impact factor. These strengths have been widely recognised. For example, a number of Latin American countries, including Brazil, Chile and Mexico, prioritise or grant exclusive status to this programme when awarding scholarships to their citizens to complete doctoral theses in the marine sciences in Spain. This preferential treatment also shows that the programme is very well regarded in the Spanish-speaking world.

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